Pix from the outing

Link to the Album of picutres

View the pictures as a slideshow

Some Videos from outing

Direct Link to the ladies enjoying some cooling water

Direct Link to Alexander fascinated by plant

Abuela appreciating her birthday collage

Casa Lennon’s abuela, sometimes know called Juana Antónia Lennon Gutierrez Magro Ibañez Alonso Palacios Barona Ruano García, delighted everyone by turning 70 years young. Much of the family converged on Las Tapas in Old Town Alexandria in what unexpectedly turned out to be a surprise party. More a function of the Lennon clan’s well communicated inability to communicate well.

That said, it was really fun. People came from Florida, North Carolina, New York, and even Maryland to take part. The primary “gift” abuela always wants is the time spent with her family – namely the grandkids. That is what she wants more than anything else. That said, Michael coordinated a gathering of lifetime photos and stories to put together for abuela. I highly recommend viewing the awesome collage that was the product of that effort.

ASIDE: We had the good fortune of being at the Spanish restaurant while Spain was beating Paraguay in the World Cup. (In case you hadn’t heard, SPAIN WON!!!! VIVA ESPANA!!! )

One last thing, we’d like to thank our niece Chloe for snapping so many candid photos.

Pictures from the Celebration

Here is the photo album gallery.

Here you can view it as a slideshow.

As background, you need to know that “Ellie” is Sophia’s most treasured posession. Ellie is a Carter’s pink, elephant plush toy. (Get it, “Ellie”?) Once we realized how much she loved this toy, we started hunting for a duplicate. We called multiple Targets in multiple states. (Really.) No dice. We wanted insurance should something happen to Ellie. Our solution was Paco (the Pachyderm). You can see a pic of them side by side. Alas, what we got was a daughter who now needed two elephants to go to sleep.

Sophia giving Alexander an unprompted hug

Well, last week Mommy Michele texted Daddy Dave cuz we thought we might have found a suitable stand in.

And (finally) on to the point of this post.

We came downstairs and Sophia spotted the 3rd elephant and yelled “other Ellie!” She lit up and was delighted. She grabbed and hugged her. Alexander was already awake at this time but a wee bit fussy. Sophia-being the sweetheart she is-walked over to him and started trying to appease him by playing with him. When that didn’t settle him down, she leaned down and gave him a big old hug. (Proud, beautiful moment for a parent to have your 2 year old hug her 5 month old brother without prompting.)

But then things got even cuter.

Sophia's "pink choo-choo"

As I calmed Alexander down (read, found pacifier), Sophia went off and entertained herself. When I turned my attention to her, I saw she’d definitely found a way to keep herself busy.Without any intervention or input from me, Sophia had set up a “pink choo-choo”. Her words, not mine. She had arranged to kitchen chairs back-to-back, put the Ellie and other Ellie in one chair, and sat in the second chair. Her “pink choo-choo” was complete with the requisite “choo-choo” sounds. Of course, the highlight was when she asked if I wanted to ride the pink choo-choo. Of course, nothing is beneath me.

Once the rest of the house was awake, Mommy realized she needed to go upstairs for something. Sophia very much wanted to stay with Mommy. As we all began heading upstairs, Sophia turned around, looked at me and said, “Daddy, go downstairs.” I guess I had outlived my usefulness.

Small Album of pix from this AM

Click to view the photo album

Click to view as a slideshow

What happens when you take on Sophia's head

Mommy consoled her as much as we could. Sophia was already tired and pretty soon thereafter fell asleep on Mommy. We’ve been putting bags of frozen veggies on the back of her head to try to keep the huge bump on the back of her head from growing. Fingers crossed. Given Daddy’s history with head injuries, we’re obviously nervous.

She seems to be doing pretty well now that she is resting on Mommy in their mutually loved glider chair. I think Mommy and Daddy’s hearts are probably done racing now, too.

Oh, yeah, Alexander is out cold on the kitchen table.
Quick Update: Sophia just had her first ever “Children’s Ibuprofen” as opposed to the previous “Infant’s Ibuprofen”. I know we age, but it just seems like she shouldn’t be there yet. :/

As may very well become our custom, we hosted an open house for Sophia’s birthday. The event serves the dual purposes of getting to see many of our friends that we haven’t seen in a while and celebrating Sophia’s birthday. Aside from the fact that the sun decided to be an active participant in this year’s festivities, we all had a really good time. Most importantly, Sophia had an absolute blast. We also were able to get several of our friends together that we have been trying to introduce to one another.

Of course, this format may not work as well for Alexander’s birthday, since he is in mid-winter. Oh well, I am sure his celebration will be great, too.

Note to all other parents of young children: We got a lot of feedback that the “format” worked very well. We opened our doors in the early afternoon and invited folks to drop by whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted. This definitely helped with toddler/infant nap schedules. Some stayed for 30 minutes as they squeezed us in between competing weekend events. (Thank you!) Some stayed for hours. It was great to be able to see people for any period of time.

We are so blessed with so many wonderful friends who would take time of their hectic lives to help us celebrate. We are genuinely grateful.

We are especially grateful that Dave’s parents (a.k.a. abuela and grandpa) made the trip down from DC. Especially since two days prior they had just arrived back in the country from a month in Spain. WOW! We love you.

Photos from Sophia’s 2nd Birthday

Here are the pictures from Sophia’s second birthday.

Videos of Sophia’s 2nd Birthday

Terrible recording of us singing happy birthday to Sophia. Direct Link to YouTube video

Sophia having fun, as usual, with the Mackes. Direct Link to YouTube Video
(Forgive Daddy’s awful singing)

Cherry Garcia was a hit

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago. I am just now getting around to posting it. I hope to post a bunch of stuff, even really old stuff, in the days ahead. (Promises, promises.)

The story here was that the day after Sophia’s second birthday, we went out with the grandparents to Bond Park in Cary. It was rather toasty. Abuela, aka, Daddy Dave’s mom, really wanted to get Sophia some ice cream. That’s what grandparents do, right? Anyway, as you’ll see in the video below, Sophia rather enjoyed her first ever Cherry Garcia.

Some Pictures

The few pictures in this album illustrate the point as well.

Video Evidence

Direct Link to YouTube Video

Alexander enjoying the exersaucer

Title kinda sums it all up pretty nicely. Earlier today, Alexander rolled over for the first time.  (Looking back on it, looks like Sophia did it at around the same time.) Amazingly, I had the camera handy today, so I was able to capture it. Decided to add a second video to make this post a little more substantive.

Hope that everyone is well.

Alexander’s first roll

Direct link to YouTube video

Alexander enjoying his exersaucer

Direct link to YouTube video

Alexander getting some dropoff kisses

This week had one of those big “life” days. Monday (5/24) was Alexander’s first day of day care. Alexander did very well. Sophia didn’t do as well on Monday. She laid down in the hallway outside of her classroom and cried – a very sad, pathetic cry. Ever since she has been going part time, Sophia has had no interest in going to day care. I guess playing with Mommy is just too much fun. Fitting, since she did not have a good first day oh so long ago.

But about Alexander… He had a very good first day. Slept well. Ate well. etc. Everything you could hope for. And he doesn’t yet have an ear infection. The day, as all you other parents know, was harder on Mom and Dad. Spending all your time with him and then breaking that is hard to do. We’re hoping that since he’s starting at 15 weeks rather than ~8 months (like Sophia), that he (and we) will have an easier transition.

One redeeming thing is that we are very happy with Primrose, our day care provider. We are also very grateful to the day care management for their flexibility during this transition. It made a world of difference.

Collection of Photos from first day

You can view the collection of photos from the first day by going to the gallery.

Hope you folks like the setup and pix. Leave some comments if you have any ideas or feedback.

Sophia is as much of a ham as her daddy

Sophia made her inaugural solo bike ride. Admittedly, it was almost a month ago, but she now asks to get on her “bici” all the time. (Spanish abbreviation.)  It’s an amusing back story.

We were shopping for a bike trailer that Dave would pull behind his bike.  We really liked the Burley Honey Bee. We found a good deal on it at the Bicycle Chain. Alas, after taking Dave’s bike there, we learned that the trailer would not attach to his bike. While Dave was trying it all out, Michele entertained Sophia by letting her ride various kids bikes. Sophia loved it. So much so that, well, we left with a bike. It’s actually used (though you would never know by looking at it). The best part is that we’ll be able to trade it back in later. Apparently young kids grow out of things.

Well, see below for more pix of the first ride and a video to boot.

More Cycling Pix

The collection of shots from her bike ride.

Video leaving the garage

Alexander giving Mommy a big smile

Alexander was crying while Michele got the diaper bag ready. Sophia grabbed his blanket and put it on him. Since he was lying on the play mat with a dangling musical lion, Sophia pulled the musical lion for him. (That was one of Sophia’s favorite toys as an infant.) Then she gave him the pacifier.

Way to go, Sophia! Sounds like you are ready to babysit at 23 months.